Game Review: The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim

Hi everyone. Its been a long time since I posted on here. Life's been very chaotic and busy since my last post but I finally have time to write up another review. Scratch that. That's not really true. I really still don't have time with the sheer amount of great games having been released in the last few months but I feel like I really need to write a review for Skyrim. I have not finished this game by any stretch of the imagination. If anything, I've barely managed to scratch the surface. And that is exactly the problem. Understand this before I begin, I'd rather be writing this review of the game then actually playing it.

Skyrim is one of the huge blockbuster games to come out this year alongside Batman Arkham City, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, Assassin's Creed Revelations, etc. Many people are already quite familiar with the Elder Scrolls series and of course will dutifully pick this game up like the sheep they are. But to start, this game is a massive open world action-RPG. You can go anywhere and do anything you want. The graphics are stunning and there are so many playstyles and options available to you from the start. It's truly a breathtaking game that will leave you in awe.

At least, thats what the developers wanted everyone to believe.

This game is developed by Bethesda games, which is known for other superb games such as Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. You might see a trend there. They are all massively open world action-RPG games that let you do whatever you want. But thats probably one of the biggest flaws of these games. Doing whatever you want on paper sounds like a fantastic idea but it ends up falling short. Which would you rather do in an action game: be able to do a triple front flip over an enemy to strike at their back or steal a bunch of wooden plates that are worth 1 gold? Probably the triple front flip. Skyrim is huge, no doubts about that, but just because it is huge doesn't make it better. If you only had one town in a game that you could mess around in, you'd probably get tired of it quickly. Bethesda's answer to that is well, lets make a hundred towns and scatter them all over the map, and we'll make them very far from everything else. Now you are still doing the same monotonous and meaningless stuff you were doing initially in the game, but now just in a larger area. That doesn't really increase fun factor. My biggest complaint with this game (and with all the bethesda games really) is that there is TOO MUCH of nothing to do. From an observer's standpoint, in one town you could very easily find a hundred wooden plates. You can take all of them and sell them for a sheer profit. But they are worth 1 gold. Thats not much profit when everything you slay in the world drops 10-60 gold at a time. Why bother stealing those plates? And I know no one out there is actually taking those. So why are they there? Do they server a purpose? Is there a quest later on that I haven't gotten to yet that asks you to retrieve some number of plates for a quest giver? I highly doubt that. Most of the game world is taken up by useless junk to give the impression of freedom and that the game world is large. I'd rather you conserved that space and added some more core game mechanics.

And that is something that this game does do correctly. The leveling up and skill system is perfect in its execution. You get experience for the skills you actually utilize (if you use destruction magic all the time, that skill will level up more and in turn, grant you more exp to your character level.) When you level up you get to choose whether you would like to increase Health, Stamina, or Magic. From there you also get to choose a perk in any of the skill trees such as making pickpocketing people 20% more likely to succeed. However every perk has a skill level requirement. An example is sneaking. At Sneaking lvl 20 you can choose the perk to make you 20% less likely to be seen when sneaking. Now that perk can be upgraded 5 times all the way to 100%, but if you haven't reached skill lvl 40 you can not get the next level of that perk. The system works really well and is very interesting. The only problem with that is that the system can be taken advantage of to a DRASTIC degree. I'm lvl 37 in the game, almost lvl 38. I have done almost no quests. I just stored up about 2000 gold and went to a particular skill trainer in the town of Whiterun. He trained me in one-handed weapons til I had no money left. I then let him turn around (or in most cases go back to sleep) and then pickpocketed my money back. If the chance of success was low I saved my game and would constantly quit and reload until he didn't notice me stealing from him. One successful steal from him raise my pickpocketing by 2 lvls. It wasn't long into the game before my pickpocketing skill was maxed out. Nifty trick, and it leveled up my character fast (I must've been at least 30 by the time I finished doing that.) The thing about a huge game like this is that there needs to an incentive to explore every facet of the game and to engage in the world around you and I strongly feel like the game fails to do that.

Before you cry fowl, I love RPGs. My favorite game of all time is Chrono Trigger, a classic SNES RPG. I'm no stranger to long games and/or extensive quests and sidequests. But Skyrim takes it to another level to where it just gets repetitive. After you fight your first dragon in the game, which is one of the "great" mechanics, it's no longer an enthralling experience. You see another one, you kill it for its power and loot, and you continue on your way. No big deal. No big deal?! In every other game I've ever played that has included dragons, they are not easy to kill at all. They are usually the toughest opponents in video games and this game kind of bastardizes them. They are no more difficult then a pathetic wolf in the wild. That truly saddens me. Giants in this game have proved to be harder to kill the dragons. When did that happen?

And the biggest gripe of all, is that this game is made by Bethesda, a company more famous for its countless bugs in all their games then for anything else. This game is no exception. There are bugs that make the environment look awful with textures not loading or coming out blurry, bugs that allow you to steal EVERYTHING in a building if you just put a basket or pot on everyone's head (apparently AI can't see through baskets and pots), bugs that can utterly break the game for you. If this was Bethesda's first console game then fine, I understand that you are new to this designing a game for consoles thing. But this is not the case. After 3 games, that are literally the exact same game in terms of game engine and gameplay, you'd think that they'd have figured some of these glitches out and known how to look for them. Nope, not only do they still have glitches, they still have the same damn glitches. Do you understand how ridiculous that is? That is a game designer telling you they don't give a damn if the game is broken. That is sloppy game design and that is something I cannot abide by.

Even though I've bashed this game quite a bit, all in all it is fairly good. But thats only if you can see your way past all the flaws. Me? At this point, with all the games that have been released, I don't have the time to drop 100+ hours in a game with so much random crap in it. I'll finish the game, in terms of completing the main quest, but that is pretty much it. And who knows when that'll be. It took me a couple years to finish Oblivion and Fallout 3 (even though I loved Fallout 3, i waited for all of the dlc to release before I finished it) and I imagine the same will be said for Skyrim. There are too many better offerings out there that aren't glitchy and that have a more focused goal. Skyrim is the ADD child's RPG.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim gets a 70 out of 100

Favorite TV shows - (6-10)

Here we go, a continuation of my favorite TV shows, it would have been wise of me to do it in a better order, but this is me and i always like to keep people guessing, here we go for numbers 10 to 6!

10. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)

I was born into a Star Trek family, my parents watched the original series when it was on and made me watch the movies that followed it. As i got older, i would watch the Next Generation and it was the first star trek series i watched. I still consider it to be the best of the best when it comes to the series as a whole. I love every minute of it.

9. Seinfeld (1989)

As with Star Trek, i was born into the world of the show about nothing. This show was funny, and was nothing like anything ive seen before. I cant say anything else about it, but it is good it ended when it did or it could end up like simpsons.

8. Ren and Stimpy (1991)

With many shows of the 90s, there was a bit of controlled gross out humor. I wonder how and why my mother let me watch this show as a kid. I asked her sometime ago, she simply said, she liked it too. Whats not to love about this show, i mean really. It was funny, it was silly, and it was a point of my life when i was discovering amazing shows.

7. Mystery Science Theater 3k (1988)

I started to watch this show in the mid 90s, when i discovered it one saturday morning on the Sci Fi channel. I love the movies in this show and i would always watch it even without the riffs. The characters were likable and funny too. Some of my favorite jokes were from this show.

6. Legends of the Hidden Temple (1993)

Made in the middle of the great game shows of 90s Nick, this show was one of a few shows i always wanted to be on. I dont think it can ever be replicated in the way it was made. If they remade it, ill give it one episode, if it fails, i wont watch it. This would be the test of the lifetime. I cant watch much of 90s tv now, mainly because it reminds me of how old i am, but with this show, i dont care.

Awesome Games in the 21st Century: Okamiden

I got a 3DS.  Damn you, Tenchi.  You have convinced me for the last time!


But god damn it, this game is adorable.  It's the sequel to Okami, which kind of freaks me out a bit seeing that most games like this are not direct sequels.  The gameplay is pretty nice, and with the drawing ability for this system, how can you not make this game for the DS?
Yeah this game is a DS game.  Unfortunately I didn't buy a 3D game right away, but because I was in love with the gameplay and storyline of the first game, I really wanted to see what the sequel had to offer.

One thing that's hilarious is that you get different kids riding on Chibiterasu's back the entire time.  You get attached to one guy, who also fights, then have to immediately get used to another one and complete a dungeon.  Not that bad of an idea, but I was so used to the fact that the first character, the son of Susano, would be there the entire time.  Then some mermaid thinks it's alright to just climb on up and hang around for a while.  Freeloaders...

Story's not that horrible.  Rarely there are mentions of the previous storyline except if you read the history scrolls, but reoccurring characters do show up every now and then or at least get mentioned.  The world map also expands like it has been a while since the last game ended.  New places are discovered along with new areas within some of the familiar lands. 

The battle system is also very different.  Like I said before the different partners also fight but usually at the end of your combo.  You also get graded for how much they fight at the end of the battle mode like it does in the first game.  Your partners also have abilities to walk towards different switches or weird terrain that the puppy Chibiterasu normally can't walk over.  This also comes to play with some different brush techniques made for this game that the original didn't have.  Funny thing is all of the brush gods have kids, too, so you get these cutscenes after constellation drawings of these baby versions of the gods doing something clumsy and stupid.  So far I have run into about two different techniques that are new to the series, and it adds more activity to the drawing modes in the game. 

Overall, without finishing it, I find it engaging but with not as much depth as the original had. Sometimes you'll find yourself flying through the game and other times getting stuck or skipping a few boring cutscenes.  But there are tons of treasures to find and other sidequests to do that could probably give you a break from the linear storyline. 

Three Word Movie Reviews - Real Steel

Occupying Blind Faith

Normally I wouldn't publish a political post because I live in New England, where Conservatives like me are outlawed by the population's general Liberal/Democratic ideas, but I feel that I should let my voice be heard in some sort of forum.

What we have here is a list of demands the occupiers on Wall Street published more than a week ago.  Now let me say, this is the most diverse list of anything I have ever seen.  No specific goals that are centric around each other, but they have clearly been given a lot of thought to start maybe a revolution.

Now being conservative, whenever I see something about rights being pushed, I get nervous not because I don't like them (hell, I'm a minority and I would love to be equal as any other person), but generally this won't cut down racism or sexism in personal minds at all.  I do get that ladies will be able to sue if a problem raises at work or maybe just in public that is offensive to their gender, but I'd say that pushing for rights won't make issues go away so simply.  I do encourage their spirit, but you can't make a balanced world because everyone is human and bias.  Being protected by law is great, but you can't be protected in every aspect.  Life is unfair and should remain that way so we can learn and get something out of our experiences.  But I understand this isn't the angle they are going for, but it will all eventually boil down to this in my eyes.

Free college education.  What the fuck?  I mean yeah college is expensive, but how the good Lord will college be able to pay for all their expenses without charging anything?  How about we just change it to college being more affordable?  Or have some sort of grant rules or scholarships?  But these are business related places, and again, conservative!, people like me usually go for as little government and business relation as possible.

Free borders also concern many especially those who are in fear of population growth that will lead to too many people living in one area and not that many resources to go around.  But the environment friendly demand doesn't really put me off that much either, but my only concern is where are we going to get the money to get started with this?  Although we do have a lot of research done, just obtaining the technology needed is going to dig us into a debt hole again.  However there are some slightly affordable alternative energy systems, but if you think about it solar panels are really expensive and will take about two years to pay off for itself.  Not that affordable for most so what would the cost of bigger projects be?  And because I'm not very informed with healthcare, I'm not going to touch that fire without knowing more.

So all in all there is a reason why this protest is very dangerous especially with demands that seem to go through the roof.  While their main reason of doing this is to stop cooperate greed, some of the demands that have been hung onto the list don't necessarily directly relate to the issue these protestors want to solve.  God bless them for putting themselves out there, but most of these demands are way bigger than what they think.  This might enrage some of you, but I personally think these need to be more specific and not so generalized in order to get anywhere.

Top 5 Favorite TV Shows

Since Doug Walker of tgwtg.com did his personal Top 20 TV shows, i will talk about my top 5 TV shows of all time which i can say i have a personal attachment to. Ill prolly do a vlog about this to go more into detail, but this is my top 5 favorite tv shows, why top 5, because i am not witty enough to do a full top 10.

5. Futurama (1999)

What can i say about this witty and great program. The characters are funny, the stories are funny and everything about them is just fuuny. I know a lot of people would pick Matt Groening's other show "The Simpsons" but with the way that shows been, ill always choose Futurama. I love all the characters, and one of the rare shows i can actually give a damn about them as well. Other shows i just dont care enough to really get into the world it portrays. This is the gem of the show and i hope that they continue on with the new episodes.

4. Home Improvement (1991)

This show features some of the best comedy for its time. Tim Allen as a do it yourself, tv show host and father/husband who constantly screws up and has to seek help from the wise man next door, this show was a great addition to my childhood as i would watch it always. This was an amazing show for a number of reasons, but most of all it teaches a lesson. This show always had conflicts that our never asks for direction stereotype male character has to fix and sometimes he never has the answer for it, so he goes to seek help. Proves that we all need a little help once in a while.

3. The X-Files (1993)

I was a huge fan of extra terrestrials, UFOs, government keeping the existence of these from us as a kid and this show fueled it. This to me was the quintessential show for anyone who was into this. You wanted the main characters to fall in love, you wanted to see them get out of any situation they encountered, they just were that likable. An old nickname of mine comes directly from this show, well, people on the internet called the character this, and seeing that i took it over. Just a fun show to watch.

2. Undergrads (2001)

Oh man, this show was my hopes and dreams of college life. Then i went to a community college and i didnt live at my four year after. This show was me in its purest form. I had a lot of expectations going into college, and i didnt get any of them. But this was a super entertaining show, and i cant say enough about it. It was just that good. Only on for one season, it covered everything i might encounter in college, but never got to. It has a huge fan base and could get a second season if the fans all band together and raise money for the creator so he could make another one. Its up to you fans, get on that!

1. Arrested Development (2003)

Well, this list should be favorite comedies, but this show is just too funny. The characters, situations, everything, it is in my eyes a perfect show. I can not say anything else about this show. Just watch it, give it a shot and enjoy, thats about it. It is a great cast with great writing. Funniest show on TV you didnt watch.

Honorable mentions:

Any of the Nicktoons of the 1990s: Just because i grew up on these shows do not mean they are on my top 5. If i did a top 10, you would see maybe Doug, Ren and Stimpy, and Roccos Modern Life. But they are NOT my favorite shows.

Doctor Who: Surprised? from all the talk ive done about how much i love this show? Well, its a recent show ive gotten into. I got into it late 2010 and ive only been into the show for about less than a year. It wouldnt be fair to put this into top list if i only been a fan for a year, the top 5 are shows i watched all the time over the course of 10-15 years.

Any of the Toonami or Adult Swim shows: i like them but i wouldnt say they are favorites.

thats about it, and as always,

The Duke Abides

Stupidest Ideas in the 21st Century: Game Related Movies

I'm not talking about video game related movies; I'm talking board game related movies.  Battleship huh?  Really?  Are we really going to take a step in that direction?  I mean there are thousands of books that could be made into great movies, but I guess board games are way better.

So yes this is not a lie.  If you haven't heard already (it was all over the Internet news sites), Battleship is going to be a movie.  Great idea, Hollywood.  But honestly even though many are upset over this, we have no idea if this will be a hit or not.  But I swear to God, if I hear "You sunk my battleship!" anywhere in this movie, I'm going to strangle the nearest person sitting next to me. 

But another movie that is also looking as a board game rip off is Real Steel, which many believe to be a version of Rock Em Sock Em Robots.  Now I can sort of see why toy/game movies are starting to become a norm now.  If you think back to the announcement of Transformers, people laughed in Bay's face.  But after just a week of that movie being out, it was a HUGE blockbuster.  And it also spawned to "successful" sequels (successful in quotation marks because some will argue). 

However, Transformers was also a show not just a line of toys made.  These other movies; no television shows at all.  So these game movies...it could be a waste of money.  Or the best idea ever.

But I'd like the differ.